Page 110 - 2019 - Leaders in Legal Business (q)
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need an accurate record of matter type and experience. Likewise, analyzing profitability by
matter type has the same requirement.
Integrating Laterals and Cross-Selling. With lawyers regularly moving laterally to new
firms, the complexion of cross-selling has changed. Personal connections and memory of
prior matters no longer suffices. To cross-sell effectively, partners need a constantly
refreshed source of information on matters and lawyers.
Enterprise Search Solved Many Problems – and New Products Will Do Even More
Around 2005, technology emerged that helped address the challenges of PSL costs,
absence of context, increasing email volume, and an inability to systematically identify
experienced experts. Enterprise Search, a method of organizing information derived from multiple
sources, went well beyond keyword searches of Word and PDF documents. This technology
searches multiple sources of information — documents, email, time entries, matter intake
databases, and client relationship management systems — and applies sophisticated algorithms to
create a retail-shopping-like search experience inside of law firms and departments. These systems
also demonstrated that finding a related matter is very helpful, as finding a case similar to the one
at hand identifies both lawyers with experience and relevant documents.
With a few words, lawyers can search for documents, email, matters, or experts and have
a very good chance that the system would show highly relevant results at the top of a search result
hit list. They also display search filters to narrow results (for example, by jurisdiction, lawyer, or
file type). Today, several products are available to accomplish this, as described in more detail in
the next section.
Starting in 2016 and continuing into 2017 and beyond, Enterprise Search options have
changed and improved. Many law firms are moving or are planning moves to newer software with
greater capabilities. Some choices incorporate sophisticated artificial intelligence that will improve
search. First, the software will “know” who the user is, his or her practice, and recent work. Those
factors, previously untapped, will improve search results. And second, search likely will become
embedded in other platforms such as document management or Microsoft Word. In that scenario,
“search comes to the lawyer instead of the lawyer going to the search.” This has significant
potential to improve lawyer efficiency. (For more detail on this point, see an August 2017 article
my colleagues and I wrote, Transforming How Lawyers Work: AI-enabled Document
Management.)
The Emergence of Specialized Experience Management Software
Around 2014, a new class of software came to market designed specifically to manage
experience. Examples of brands include Foundation Software, Prosperoware Umbria, and
Neudesic Firm Directory. These offer a single enterprise system that can power marketing, KM,
finance, and other functions. The software allows for collecting important details about lawyers
and matters, offers flexible reporting, integrates with other law firm systems, and has a simple-to-
use interface. Certain key information in these systems can be populated by Enterprise Search
discussed above, but experience software collects and manages much valuable data beyond that.
For robust experience management, however, software alone is not enough. Someone must
populate the data, if not lawyers, then staff to take a first cut and, ultimately, to visit lawyers to
collect the correct information. Reluctance to hire staff for this has fallen as firms respond to the
95
matter type has the same requirement.
Integrating Laterals and Cross-Selling. With lawyers regularly moving laterally to new
firms, the complexion of cross-selling has changed. Personal connections and memory of
prior matters no longer suffices. To cross-sell effectively, partners need a constantly
refreshed source of information on matters and lawyers.
Enterprise Search Solved Many Problems – and New Products Will Do Even More
Around 2005, technology emerged that helped address the challenges of PSL costs,
absence of context, increasing email volume, and an inability to systematically identify
experienced experts. Enterprise Search, a method of organizing information derived from multiple
sources, went well beyond keyword searches of Word and PDF documents. This technology
searches multiple sources of information — documents, email, time entries, matter intake
databases, and client relationship management systems — and applies sophisticated algorithms to
create a retail-shopping-like search experience inside of law firms and departments. These systems
also demonstrated that finding a related matter is very helpful, as finding a case similar to the one
at hand identifies both lawyers with experience and relevant documents.
With a few words, lawyers can search for documents, email, matters, or experts and have
a very good chance that the system would show highly relevant results at the top of a search result
hit list. They also display search filters to narrow results (for example, by jurisdiction, lawyer, or
file type). Today, several products are available to accomplish this, as described in more detail in
the next section.
Starting in 2016 and continuing into 2017 and beyond, Enterprise Search options have
changed and improved. Many law firms are moving or are planning moves to newer software with
greater capabilities. Some choices incorporate sophisticated artificial intelligence that will improve
search. First, the software will “know” who the user is, his or her practice, and recent work. Those
factors, previously untapped, will improve search results. And second, search likely will become
embedded in other platforms such as document management or Microsoft Word. In that scenario,
“search comes to the lawyer instead of the lawyer going to the search.” This has significant
potential to improve lawyer efficiency. (For more detail on this point, see an August 2017 article
my colleagues and I wrote, Transforming How Lawyers Work: AI-enabled Document
Management.)
The Emergence of Specialized Experience Management Software
Around 2014, a new class of software came to market designed specifically to manage
experience. Examples of brands include Foundation Software, Prosperoware Umbria, and
Neudesic Firm Directory. These offer a single enterprise system that can power marketing, KM,
finance, and other functions. The software allows for collecting important details about lawyers
and matters, offers flexible reporting, integrates with other law firm systems, and has a simple-to-
use interface. Certain key information in these systems can be populated by Enterprise Search
discussed above, but experience software collects and manages much valuable data beyond that.
For robust experience management, however, software alone is not enough. Someone must
populate the data, if not lawyers, then staff to take a first cut and, ultimately, to visit lawyers to
collect the correct information. Reluctance to hire staff for this has fallen as firms respond to the
95
